When Roads Fork In

Psalm17:6

"I call on You, O God, for You will answer me; give ear to me and answer my prayer."

It's been a while since i've had timely fellowship with sibs. i mean, recalling MM days, blowing off the dust from the images in my head of the wonderful moments spent there with my Ates and Kuyas. Maybe it hasn't been that long though, but i still miss that Gethsemane. Anyway, times have changed for the better, and God is still sovereign over all, and He's still at work as He always has been.

The fellowships i'm getting into, and the new friends i'm making are just awesome. They're a real encouragement to me, and i'm so blessed to have been led to them. However, since i started college, i've been missing out a bit on fellowship. i mean, i rarely get to see my friends from church these days because of tight schedules, not to mention days pass by like weeks for me, but i am really glad for Friday nights at the Youth and Wednesday nights at Core.

For a while now, i've been praying about having a brother in Christ to chill, hang out, and Fish with during the free hours. God's definitely been doing some preparation because i didn't know what i was getting myself into one Tuesday morning while waiting for the Registrar's office to open and get my schedule printout to be finally stamped, ENROLLED. i sat down waiting, and there at the other end of the row of seats sat a guy who was doing the same. Well, we were both not going anywhere, so i had to share Christ to him. i was finally able to open up a conversation with him, but quickly found out that he too was a Christian from the same church as i was. His name is Dan, and i was curious about never having to have met him even though he has been attending church longer than i have; when he said he doesn't know when and where youth nights and college nights are held, and can't find anyone to hang out with. It broke me to learn that because he's unable to find Christian friends, and his timidity, he decided to just go about his days as a loner, rather than getting mixed with nonbelievers. That's when God grabbed my heart the most.

The Christian life was never meant to be lonely. I knew at that moment that my prayers were answered. To further confirm it, the free time in our schedules during Tuesdays and Thursdays matched! The same morning, since i was off at 9:30 in my only class, Dan and i went to validate our IDs. i asked him if he was up for some fishing, and was blessed to know he didn't hesitate one bit, even though he didn't have much experience, and still wanted to learn how. We were able to talk to this one guy sitting next to us, and he was very thankful. While waiting, it became clear to me that Dan really felt lonely. He warmed up to me real quickly, and shared to me that he too was praying for a brother to hang out with and talk to about God in an edifying way. God just put us both in awe when we both learned we had the same prayer answered.

We now meet up regularly on Tuesday mornings to listen to sermons, and TTh afternoons to do some witnessing. Dan's been a real blessing to me in just a short while. He reminds me that there really is nothing up for grabs in this world which will ever satisfy the Spirit. i guess my task now is to bring him out of his shell and encourage him to stand boldly for God regardless the circumstance.

God's been real awesome as He always is! <><

I'll Praise You in this Storm

Lately, it's been raining here in my humble home town (city actually, but town sounded a lot better), Dumaguete. Oh, and it's not just the ordinary rain we're experiencing here. It's constant weather changes throughout the day, like it would be scorching hot at 8am, and then at 11am, it would be real cloudy, and then it will eventually rain at noon, and sometimes at night, we experience heavy thunderstorms. It kinda reminds me of a vision God gave me not too long ago, along with a great lesson from what has become my life verse.

Okay, so it was like this. I was just browsing around youtube, trying to find cool videos, when I stumbled upon a vid from a Casting Crowns concert of the song Praise You in this Storm. Mark Hall (lead vocals) told this story about the band meeting this young little girl whom was later discovered to have lung tumors. She eventually died. The miracle in this tale was that all the mother could say about her loss was that her little girl was God's gift, and that God had every right to take that precious gift away. I've had my share of great struggles and pains, and God just wanted me to know something. Here's my vision:

I was placed in a small rowboat

I was in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight

Everywhere led to nowhere

I was lost

Just when I thought things couldn't get much worse,

Storm clouds came in and turned the whole sky gray

I was terrified

I knew paddling out of the way of the storm was just useless

The rain poured down,

The wind blew hard,

The waves crashed,

Lightning flashed across the sky,

And the roar of thunder drowned out all sounds

I was just about to give up when I noticed someone

It was God!

And He was with me!

I looked at Him, and He looked right back

Things were vague as ever

He didn't seem like He was doing anything

The storm seemed to grow worse and worse

I was holding onto the boat for dear life

I then dared to ask,

"God, I know You're here

And I know You're doing something,

But what is it?"

God just looked at me

His eyes just filled with love and compassion

He said nothing

Hours passed

And the terrible storm continued

My arms were weary

And just when I was just about to let go,

The storm stopped

The sun began to shower its warm beams at the earth again

With just one swipe of God's hand,

I was instantly warm and dry

I turned around, and low and behold,

I was on land, sweet land

I then turned to thank God,

But He disappeared

Still I knew He never left

The vision ends here, and I realized what God tried to tell me. It's that He may choose to put us in either fine weather, or something a lot more challenging, or He could take away something dear and precious to us. You can ask Him a thousand questions about what He's doing, when it seems like He's not doing anything at all. But He will never leave you. Yes, He may choose to reveal to us why we're experiencing such storms, or what He's doing while we're in them when it seems like nothing's happening, but when He chooses not to reveal such reasons, it's because He wants us to know that we have our faith to count on that He's actually doing something while we're in trouble, and that He will never lead us in a situation we can't handle. He may choose to calm the storms in our lives, or He might choose to just ride 'em with us, but either way, blessed be the name of the Lord.

"The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord."

- Job 1:21b